The Lady Calls Back...

A few months ago, when I was in a previous relationship, an actress called me in my office.

It was one of those rare mornings when there was no one else here in my office and the phones were silent enough for me to actually talk to her. Initially, she called because she was being cast as an understudy in our mainstage show, but since it was her first understudying gig, she was full of questions. I answered them as best as I was able. I really enjoyed knowing enough, that early in my gig, to be able to actually answer her questions. I sort of looked like I knew what I was talking about.

I thought she was smart and funny and very clever. I really enjoyed talking to her. I could hear a very distinct accent coming from her. So, I asked her where she was from. Turns out that she was recently transplanted to Chicago from South Carolina and was here to explore the comedy scene. That was something else that I could talk about with some experience.

Towards the end of the conversation, she asked me if I was free to get together with her that night to continue our discussion and grab a drink or two. A very brave move on her part.

I politely turned her down, excusing myself with a previous obligation, but asking to raincheck it with her some time. I figured that I would be able to work my girlfriend into our next discussion and then she'd know which way the wind blowed on that issue.

After we got off the phone, I googled her to see what she looked like. Wasn't difficult. She was on a comedy website and lord, she was lovely. My co-worker, Jenn, walked in on me googling her and said, "Who is that?"

"THAT is the lovely, young actress that just asked me out for drinks." I said with a little bit of pride.

"But you have a girlfriend."

"Right. Which is why I turned her down. I just googled her out of curiosity. And she's super-cute."

"But you have a girlfriend."

"Right you are." and I closed the window and let it all go.

A week later, she was in the theater picking up her understudy materials. I was strangely excited to see her again. I felt like a Cool Guy and a Valuable Someone. The kind of guy that you ask out, site unseen. I didn't want to bring that up. But I did want to show her that I thought she was great too and that I would like to hang out with her, as friends, some time. Maybe she was laser-focused on picking up her materials or maybe I was inexplicably happy to see her, but whatever the reason, she barely paid any attention to me at all. In fact, she left without saying "goodbye". At the time, I thought, "Great. I am the disappointing person on the other end of the line. She saw me, saw my body size and type and that was a big turn-off for her."

I was a little bit down on myself about that.

Flash forward several months later and I am single again and walking into my first Saturday morning class about Comedy Styles with my boss, teaching the class. Who would happen to be in this class, but The Aforementioned Actress. She didn't say "hi" to me, in fact, she didn't look at me, at all. She looked pissed, to me. I chalked it up to her being annoyed that I'd passed on drinks with her and let it go at that.

Later, when the class was left to wander around, finding partners for future scene study, several guys flocked over to her and booked her up. I didn't even make a move towards her. I got booked up by another student. A young guy and didn't accept any other invitations. I really wasn't interested in scene study, on any level, with or without her. I just didn't want to do scene study.

Weeks passed and I watched her perform one or two scenes and she had really sharp comedic timing. In fact, she was easily better, faster and funnier than her scene partners. They were always stumbling to keep up with her. She was, hands down, the best girl in our class.

Weeks later, after considerable rehearsal, I presented my scene and it was very well received by my boss. He had compliments for my presentational style. He analyzed it and discussed what he liked and what he would improve. He gave us really smart notes. She sat there in the house, on the front row, absorbing the whole scene.

Before class was over, her whole attitude towards me changed. When I lead a group of students up the library to loan them books to look for scenes, she walked up there with me, discussing the scene and things that she liked about it. She asked me if I would want to do a scene with her. With two weeks left to go in class, I told her that I didn't have any spare time to do another scene. The truth is, I didn't know how to handle this new-found attention from her. I got shy and nervous and was a little scared of her.

The next time I saw her, was the next-to-last class, before the end of the session. She had a wedding to go to, after class and she was dressed for it. She was so mind-blowingly lovely that I caught myself commenting on it, when I saw her on the break. "You look absolutely lovely. Do you have some sort of show to go to?" and that's when she told me about the wedding. Her smile, when I commented on how lovely she looked was a million dollar smile.

The next week, I missed class for my audition with the Neos and I thought that would be the end of things.

Until the lady called back to my office today...

She had a question about the non-equity auditions that we're prepping for. I answered it for her and we fell into another nice, long, casual conversation. She just got her headshots and she wondered if I wouldn't mind taking a look at them. She forwarded me the link and while I was talking to her, I flipped through page after page of lovely headshots. She photographs very well.

We talked about work and life. She's moving next weekend across town, so that's on her mind. She asked about my job and I talked a bit about how that was going. She and I both really like my boss, so we talked about that for a bit too.

And then it came to the end of the conversation and we'd made some really loose, tentative plans to get together and it was time to back away completely or jump off the cliff with her...

So I asked for her number.

And she gave it to me.

Actually, she gave me two numbers. Home and cell. "That way, you'll have no trouble getting in touch with me," she said. Inside, I melted just a little bit. "You spoil me," I said in response. (I know. I know. It's lame, but it was all that I had on such short ntoice.)

Since the phone conversation we've emailed back and forth a bit about the plans for the weekend. As I mentioned some of what I've got, going on, she asked if I wouldn't mind her tagging along. When she mentioned a performance on Friday that she's really excited about, I asked her if I could come see it.

And that's how we've found ourselves getting together Friday, Saturday and Sunday evening, all weekend long.

I know. It's a lot of time together for such a new meeting. But the way that I figure it, if one or the both of us finds that we DON'T like spending time in each other's company, we can just politely bow out, either by phone or email and all will be good. As long as everyone is civil, plans can change (or be cancelled) without too much hoopla.

After all, I've already begged off of doing something with her twice now. What harm would a third time do, that the first two didn't already do?!?

So, I'm going into this sensibly. With a good head on my shoulders. I am ready and open to the experience of really enjoying her company, but won't be devastated if she checks out early. The most that I expect to get out of this is a few smart conversations with a lovely girl.

I would be lying, though, if I said that the idea of kissing her didn't terrify me in a way that I can't remember since high school. I guess you could say that I'm crushing on her a little bit.

I'm also terrified about bringing her to my apartment. I don't think that it's good enough for her. A lady this lovely expects nice places and my apartment isn't nice enough for her.

So, yes, some dates are scheduled. As you can probably tell, I am pretty excited about it.